The company has received approval for the sale of Sci-B-Vac#61472 in India and the commercialisation of the 'third generation' vaccine would commence as soon as the manufacturing facility in Rehovot, Israel, is commissioned, SciGen said.

The Israel plant is slated to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2007, it added.

With this marketing approval in India, SciGen would get exposure to the second largest pool of Hepatitis B carriers in the world.

According to estimates, at least 45 million people in India were infected with Hepatitis B while 89,000 people died of the disease in 2005. Ten per cent developed the chronic infection.

SciGen Hepatitis B vaccine will be distributed by Shreya Life Sciences, one of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in India, it was announced.